Curious fundamental question spanning the life of the franchise?

[omnimutant 2]

I'm building my city, watching it grow to an impressive 450k (for me that's a big deal), and reading the endless alerts about Health care worker protests n such, which I'm convinced is an impossible thing to solve. I've got more HC facilities then I do all other civic services combined, and still not enough... Anyway, I started wondering. Why is the City paying for things like Health care, Power and Water?  Even with Obama care in full effect, they are still privately funded institutions (with exception of Federal monies not city funds). Same goes with Power. Power company is a private entity. No Power? Call the Power company and complain, not the mayor. And water in many cities that I know of (probably most) is also privately dealt with. So I'm wondering why Maxis decided that the city should pay for these things, which traditionally are not city owned things. Also little things like Marinas and Plazas etc. Furthermore, when the City does "pay" for the existence of Garbage collection, or Water, or Public transportation, its still not free. These are things the city charges it's citizens for. I was also confused as to why Parking fines are no longer part of the game as i remember in SC2k. All of these things should be generating money for the City not costing the city money for them. With all the "Social Services" the city is "Paying for" like free Power, Water, Garbage, Public Transit, etc, the Citizens should have zero issues with tax rates being easily at 20%.

 

Moving forward, many municipalities are shifting over to private funding for Garbage, Jails, Public Transportation, and a whole host of other city services. I wish we had the Option, to chose which services the city was paying for and which were privately funded. Though I'm pretty certain that most people would not offer Free power or Water or Public transit.

 

Anyway back to my game, just some curious observations.

[jason leo 485]

Wanna have private power & water companies? Try this

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

In Simcity, the style of government is unique in that the mayor is basically 'God' ...  mayor, minister of everything, president, chairman of the board...  basically what he say goes...   the advisors are just that, he is perfectly at liberty to ignore them.   

 

The mayor basically decides what the taxes are going to be, who gets what, who gets to build what...  want to bulldoze a bunch of houses and put a road through...  sure go right ahead...  no committee debates, no consultation with anyone... please yourself. 

 

Best not to confuse the style of government in Simcity with anything you may be used to in real life.

 

...unless you live in North Korea that is.   LOL.

[eoin247 75]

Water is free for everybody where I live (Ireland) also the government controls the main electricity supplier here. Waste facilities and collection is also a government controlled thing. I believe there's something similar in the uk.

You complain about paying for civic things in simcity, but don't forget that a real government pays for much more things in real life than in simcity anyway.

[timmie 988]

Well, it's just a game. Maxis probably thought it was a simplification that was necessary to not make the game too complex (it's still just a simulation). I wouldn't call it a 'fundamental question'

[z1 566]

Actually, it's very simple.  The Sims live in a purely Socialist state.

[timmie 988]

Well, authoritarian anyway, maybe communist (but we don't really know the economic policies of the mayor )

[Pobs 24]

Water is free for everybody where I live (Ireland) also the government controls the main electricity supplier here. Waste facilities and collection is also a government controlled thing. I believe there's something similar in the uk.

You complain about paying for civic things in simcity, but don't forget that a real government pays for much more things in real life than in simcity anyway.

 

Don't you pay a monthly / annual charge for water/sewerage? I live in England we pay that. The companies which provide the service are government regulated, but are private.

 

But yes, in England waste collection and facilities are government run. Water (as I said) and power are run privately.

[docj101 99]

Um.. yeah SimCity the original "God Game" is all about totalitarianism.  Authoritarian on steroids.  As such your expected to control every aspect of the populous' life.  So of course this includes you paying for everything as well.

[Bdub01 201]

Today Sim City, tomorrow Sim Nation!!! I shall be the Supreme Potentate of Sim Nation and then the world!!!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It is a game, folks.  Too many people don't read or understand the premise of it.  It is for entertainment, and social questions are all moot.  It is not a municipal simulator by any means, and it concentrates on the traffic getting to work only.

[eoin247 75]

 

Don't you pay a monthly / annual charge for water/sewerage? I live in England we pay that. The companies which provide the service are government regulated, but are private.

 

But yes, in England waste collection and facilities are government run. Water (as I said) and power are run privately.

Yes for sewerage but water is free. They are thinking about changing that law though to make people pay for usage.

[Pobs 24]

 

Don't you pay a monthly / annual charge for water/sewerage? I live in England we pay that. The companies which provide the service are government regulated, but are private.

 

But yes, in England waste collection and facilities are government run. Water (as I said) and power are run privately.

Yes for sewerage but water is free. They are thinking about changing that law though to make people pay for usage.

 

Really? We have separate charges for Water and Sewerage! You guys have it easy!

[docj101 99]

It is a game, folks.  Too many people don't read or understand the premise of it.  It is for entertainment, and social questions are all moot.  It is not a municipal simulator by any means, and it concentrates on the traffic getting to work only.

The OP's post was basically "don't you think it's weird the mayor has to pay for everything?".  What exactly is being misunderstood here besides his observation?

 

Traffic only?  I could have swore the game also concentrated on things like power, water, trash, education, health, land value, etc.  I also seem to remember having to budget for those things when I play, hmmm weird.

[omnimutant 2]

Yup Just a simple observation and a statement...

 

Now about those Health centers! I'm at 517k ish and All funding is maxed, (way beyond the "line") and I have hordes of double and even triple (in some cases) overlap of the Large Health Care facilities. And still they Strike, and complain nonstop. I'm not sure what to do about it.

[docj101 99]

I myself used reader to make a .dat that doubled the capacity of all of my large elementary schools and hospitals to 6000 capacity.  I also doubled jobs they provide.  I used to have your issue in dense areas, I don't anymore.  If you have used reader you can do this easily yourself.  There is probably a similar file you can grab here on the STEX with some digging.  If you really want I'll put a copy of my file up for you to DL.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Here in the Netherlands, all civic structures are payed by the gouvernment, which are being funded by taxes paid by citizens and firms. Schools, hospitals, police, fire fighters, infrastructure (and i'm not only talking about roads and rails, but also canals, cables and pipes), water management (you know, to keep this below sea level land dry), electricity, waste management, defense, social funding and of course the institutions managing these things. In that perspective, SimCity 4 seems to represent the dutch situation quite well...

But hey, it's a simplification anyway. You can just build right away in-game without going through months of spatial planning procedures (if you did, it would be a huge drag)...

Best,

Maarten

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Yup Just a simple observation and a statement...

 

Now about those Health centers! I'm at 517k ish and All funding is maxed, (way beyond the "line") and I have hordes of double and even triple (in some cases) overlap of the Large Health Care facilities. And still they Strike, and complain nonstop. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Try downloading some of many large hospitals with very high capacities (go t the STEX and type "Hospital"). That works for me. What is the highest capacity hospital you have in your city and how many did you plop? And check your funding sliders.

[Pinstar 13]

The original Sim City had hospitals and schools that would pop up on their own that didn't cost you anything... granted...they didn't DO anything, as the simulation hadn't become complex enough at that point to worry about health and education levels. They were just for show...and to unlock a reward building in the SNES version. I guess you could call them private?

[libellibicus 396]

Yup Just a simple observation and a statement...

 

Now about those Health centers! I'm at 517k ish and All funding is maxed, (way beyond the "line") and I have hordes of double and even triple (in some cases) overlap of the Large Health Care facilities. And still they Strike, and complain nonstop. I'm not sure what to do about it.

That is reality. Nurses and Doctors whinge and Strike just for the sake of it. They need to let everyone know that they do great work, and what better way to do that than by denying the use of their services for a period of time. Here in the UK, the Firefighters are the same. A couple of weeks before Bonfire Night, they start moaning about being overworked and underpaid, and threatening to go on strike, just because they know that the Govt will have to listen to them due to the fact that it's almost Bonfire Night.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You can be sure that the Sims would complain even when they are being hung with a gold rope.  That's the algorithm for you.

[Metalpuritan 160]

Am I missing it?  Was there supposed to be a question there?

[Cob92 360]

It depends on where you are. Even in capitalist Texas, we have a government run power company in the capital city, government hospitals in the city, and a government-run water company in the suburb where I live. The s In real life, the government hospitals coexist with the private ones, but the reason we don't see that in games so much is because it's not as challenging if you just zone commercial and hospitals and clinics automatically develop without any input from the player. I think Sims are based off Americans; we love to have stuff done for us, but we don't want to pay for it.